A young Nepalese girl selected from the impoverished goldsmith class to be the next 'kumari' or living goddess. She is worshiped by Hindus and Budhists as the incarnation of the Hindu diety Taleju.

The child must be physically perfect and not afraid of the dark. As a final test, the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear.

The girl resides in a temple until she begins puberty, when she is sent back to her family and replaced by another living goddess.

I was surprised to see her. She had moved into the room so silently that the very air around her didn't seem to be touched. I knew she saw me, and I immediately thought, "great, she's one of those." However, I didn't get a bad vibe from her, and I was very good at picking up those.
She was small, I doubt she even breached five feet. She immediately brought to mind an image of a pixie. From what I could see of her face, her eyes were large and doe-like. Her face small, and her hair spiked unusually around her face. Her legs seemed to long for her tiny frame, although it didn't seem to make her any less graceful.
Then, she turned in my direction. The shadows around her seemed to melt off of her, as if she was controlling them. At first, I must say I was horrified. Nearly half her face was missing, scarred beyond recognition. Somehow, someone had been able to fit a fake eye into her skull in an approximate location of where it should have been. I don't know why, but the more I stared, the more natural it seemed. As if she was more than human, almost ethereal.
A large gun, sat at her back and a handgun sat on her thigh. They seemed so large for her tiny frame. On any other person, I might have found it even comical. But not on her, I had a feeling that she was very able to handle herself. As her eyes rested on the spot she knew me to be, I had a distinct feeling she knew everything about me. I briefly wondered who she used to be, before all this.

Foofea - thanks, it's from a story that I've written part of. I keep telling myself I will finish it, but I'm never sure. I liked that little part, so I decided to put it up here since it has a Halloween type vibe and it is October.

People are great, sometimes

Socrates spoke about a Philosopher King. A man with great ruling abilities as well as a moral and philosophical credo that was always on the up and up. What would a philosopher dictator, or Philosopher Overlord be like? Cares to a point about his subjects, if they are in order, wants people to be happy, but will do anything. Desires power and control but not necessarily for vain gratification. Uses barbaric means. But will have moments of honor. Can be dark or light, (some the worst warlords loved to be surrounded by beauty, not carnage). Not the atypical evil son of a gun, makes the "defeating" of him more difficult because of the absent of a clear cut murdering dictator. Infact the philosopher may be better at ruling a society then the "Hero".

He sits alone, by the ocean. On the shore stands a weather worn piano, salt stained and worn by time, yet each note is in perfect tone. Orca whales sing with him as he plays his music. Sounds of longing echo through the morning air, strains of ponderous beauty. Of whom does he feel for, are they lost or yet to come?
(Music to inspire: Orca Suite by Karl Roessingh)

The origin of this character is somewhat silly, but I've ALWAYS been interested in seeing what people do with it!

"Dirty Deets and his Thunder Jeep"

When I was a kid, listening to AC/DC on the radio but not knowing what it was, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" was my favorite song. - But when they were saying "dirty deeds, and they're done dirt cheap", I thought they were describing a character - "dirty Deets, and his 'dunder' jeep" or "thunder" jeep.

I imagined this crazy old man named Deets, who carried cyanhide and concrete shoes and other methods of murder in the back of his jeep.

I would love people to re-listen to that song, and hear what I hear - and let the rest of the lyrics determine the character. Deets is the kind of man you have to hide your wife and daughters from. He's the kind of man who's willing to make a deal, and who has no conscious about who he kills or how/why he does it.

Oy lads!
My idea for a CHOW is the use of werebeast. You know, not just the classical werewolf -though it of course could be- but any, werecats, werebulls, werebats. Making them unique individual among their races/tribes.

Religion without science is blind, but science without religion is lame
-Albert Einstein-

The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a French novel by Gaston Leroux, which according to the writer is based on real events. Leroux's original 1910 novel is set in late 19th-century. The Phantom is an extremely intressting character who you can both hate and pity both at the same time. The story is unique and very deep. There are many versions of The Phantom, but they're yet the same.

I have to apologise if I gave too much information, but I felt that it was necessary to post the story if one should understand The Phantom and his character.

The novel is about an insane but genial man with a voice like an angel but with a horribly disfigured face. He haunts the Paris Opera L'Opéra Garnier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier) where he terrorise the acters while he court the beautifull Christine Daaé who got a wonderfull singing voice. He calls himself The Angel of Music and teaches her to sing when she's alone in her louge, she can only hear him and not see him.

The Phantom manages to drive Carlotta Giudicelli, the best of the sopranosingers, into insanity so that she leaves the opera and thereby gives Christine the chanse to take her role. But this becomes too much for Carlotta, who's afraid that someone else takes her place, and returns the following evening.

Christine meets her childhood friend Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. Raoul overhears her succumbing to a tyrannical, yet supernaturally beautiful, disembodied voice in her dressing room (The Phantom). He becomes suspicious that another man is taking advantage of her innocent belief in an "Angel of Music" in order to seduce her. He starts spying on her in an attempt to find the mysterious seducer. The Phantom becomes envious of their relationship and reveales himself to her, wearing a mask, and take her down into his lair beneath the opera house.

Christine quickly finds that there is nothing angelic about him; she learns with disappointment that he is "neither an angel nor a genius", only that he and the ghost are one and the same - just a man. She comes to know him as malicious, volatile, dangerous and somewhat bitter, yet also brilliant and pitiful. The Phantom and Christine eventually begin a duet from Othello, and Christine rips off his mask, dying of curiosity. "If I live to be one hundred, I should always hear that superhuman cry of grief and rage which he uttered before that terrible sight reached my eyes", Christine later tells Raoul. The Phantom is furious at having his deformity exposed to someone who, he thinks, could love him. He threatens to keep her in his home forever, but later changes his mindand releases her, but only after promising to return by her own will and swearing never to give her love to anyone else.

After The Phantom reveals himself, she decides to tell Raoul, on the roof of the Opera Garnier, everything about her and the Phantom The two of them plan to run away from Paris. The Phantom evesdrop on them and comes up with an ingenious plan to later abduct her. The Phantom reveals himself on the Opera Masquerade Ball as the title character from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death", where he announce that he written an opera with Christine in the main role.

Raoul begs Madame Giry, the opera ballet mistress, to tell him about the Phantom. She tells him of a fair that visited the city years ago, complete with acrobats and conjurers. The main attraction was a deformed man locked in a cage; a brilliant mind with the face of a living corpse. It was boasted that he was an architect, scholar, musician and composer who once built a maze of mirrors for the Shah of Persia. Madame Giry goes on to say that he escaped and was presumed dead, but she can never forget him "for in this darkness, I have seen him again".

When the opera owners reluctantly sets up The Phantoms opera after being threatened, they come up with a plan to capture him. During The Phantoms opera, they place armed police men in the opera house. But The Phantom abducts Christine and escapes down into his lair, Raoul asks madam Giry to show him the way and she warns him of the Punjab lasso with which The Phantom have killed many.

Down in the lair, the Phantom has forced Christine to put on a wedding dress. Christine asks if he is going to kill her, whereupon he assures her that he would not, and that his face is the reason that she will not love him. Christine declares that she is not afraid of his face, but his soul. Raoul arrives, pleading to the Phantom to release Christine. The Phantom admits him to the lair and snares him in the Punjab lasso. The Phantom offers Christine an ultimatum: either he will kill Raoul and let Christine go, or she will stay with him and Raoul can go free.

The Phantom insists that she must choose. Christine sadly tells the Phantom that he deceived her. Eventually, Christine shows The Phantom genuine sympathy and displays her love for Raoul by being kind to him despite his extreme ugliness, not running away when he takes off his mask, and even kisses him on the forehead. Stunned by the kiss, which is the first real human love he has ever felt, he sets Raoul free and releases Christine and gives them his blessings to marry. He asks them both to keep his existence a secret.

She and Raoul leave in the Phantom's boat. The Phantom sobs in the wedding veil Christine has left behind. As the mob approaches, he sits down in his throne and pulls his cape around him. Madame Giry's daughter Meg slips through the bars in the gate and searches for Christine. She notices the throne and cautiously walks over to it. When she pulls back the cape, she finds that the Phantom has vanished and all that remains is his mask.

For the concept artists

Alright, so im watching "Hook" starring Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams and im thinking those lost boys look so awesome in there homemade armor!!

My proposition is to make an original Lost Boy. A young teenager with ratty clothes and a crazy armor/outfit. He could be fighting a pirate ro swinging on to the pirate ship, this part can up to the imagination. But he must have DIY armor and weapons and be recognizable as a Lost Boy.

This is the best part of the movie, when the Lost boys attack the pirates, the whole clip has great examples of what their crazy armor and weapons are like, especially the chicken gun, marble suit and paint sprayerawesome->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfj4_cb7U88

Little Nemo

I recently came across the movie: Little Nemo: adventures in slumberland, and started looking at the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay. I think a CHOW session of King Morpheus or The Nightmare King would be interesting.

Sir Reginald of Wynsleydale, Last Knight of the Edam Order. He stands guard alone now, waiting for the orders he knows he'll never hear. He's the last knight now, the Tower stands silent, even the men have left, its only him and the prisoner.
His joints and bones ache even now has he writes his story. Just a poor mouse who inadvertently became embroiled with events to amazing to tell.
He writes about the Order now, its Founders, its members, its history.

He recalls his adventures with his brothers in arms, in fact the haze of the past seems more real than the present. He remembers the battles, the missions, the journeys and they all come to life within the pages of a book. But it's more than that isn't it? More than 50 years history are within its pages and the story it tells are his own, his story, his Life. A life no-one will know or really care about but a Life nonetheless.

He walks to the dungeon now, he knows his time is almost upon him now but he came into this world fighting. It seems only fitting that's how he should leave it. The prisoner is just as ancient as he is, possibly older but he is still in his prime and captivity has done nothing to his strength.
The prisoner has killed many knights in his time, a price he's paid with his eye and he's angry. Reginald is dying. That makes them even.

He can be done in three ways
i) In his youth with the Edam Order, either on the battlefield on at camp
ii) In his old age writing his memoirs
iii) Facing off against the prisoner (intentionally vague description)

His design must reflect both his ancient age and his ability in the arts of war. He is on the verge of death and he wants to go down in a blaze of glory thus he should be well equipped and proudly sporting the insignia of the Edam Order.

Did I do good?

And of course, with the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth - the critic.

-a highschool geek and his virtual reality counterpart. in school Todd may just be an overweight kid, but as soon as he logs on to WoW he becomes Sir Todd of Thunderdome, protector of the weak and obtainer of phat l00t. both characters must be depicted.

- a rider and his mount. anything but the generic (horses, dragons, etc.), fantasy setting/timeframe.

There's probably a child like Everton Reed in almost half the elementary schools in America, you know the kind. The kind who always stare off into space while the teacher is talking, who always make up strange stories involving aliens and planets, who always scrapped their knees and elbows discovering some lost civilization behind the tulip shrubs.

Unfortunately for Everton, like most children, the spark from his eye was eventually lost. Gone were the days where he could look into the night sky and imagine all the aliens he could meet, Reality took its toll.
Besides from an awesome sense of imagination and curiosity, Everton was also exceptionally bright and by his mid 20's had graduated top of his class from M.I.T where he went on to specialize in Neuro-Interface Technology for New Ideas Incorporated, the largest Technologies developer and supplier in the Northern Hemisphere.

It was during his time with N.I.I that Everton went on to develope a revolutionary Neuro-Interface Suit System. Designed to allow N.I.I employees to interface directly to the companies computer system the suit would have placed Everton Reed in the history books. It was during the presentation to the C.E.Os that something went seriously wrong.

Once activated, the suit and the pre-set programme Everton was to execute went perfectly until an unknown power surge caused the suit to overload, almost electrifying Everton's brain. Once he woke up in the hospital, however something was different, a spark had returned to his eye. He discovered something. Something BIG!

Once he had recovered Everton was fired from N.I.I. No-one would believe Everton had discovered some kind of digital dimension. Everton didn't care either, he was a new man and research needed to be done. Stealing the suit system from N.I.I, Everton went on the run where he continues to use the suit system in order to explore this new reality, a true virtual reality which he dubbed Reality 2.0.

Notes:
Everton uses the Neuro-Interface Suit System to access Reality 2.0 though when in this digital dimension his appearance can be whatever he wants it to be. Open for interpretation though both must be included.

Refrences: Tron, Total Recall, The Matrix, System Shock, Johnny Pneumanic

And of course, with the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth - the critic.

But not the typical Pinocchio-type. I would like it to be still just a lifeless pupett, not something thats made of anything that could be living.

But here comes the twist: The marionette may in no way be living or be able to live. Nothing made of flesh and bones, but really an artificial doll-like thing. So theres no active moving on it's own, just passively being moved by a puppet player. Its just a dead object.
BUT... it should have lots of character and personality being visible in the picture. Like those puppets that creep you out when you look at them, because they seem to look back. This could be either seen in the eyes/face, the pose that its lying in or the situation around it... You should somehow be able to see it's personality.
It can either be placed in a static pose or be moved by a marionette player or whatever they're called.
The atmosphere should be dark, eery and creepy.

Can be a traditional marionette or a high tech one; boy, girl (or both or none of them at all)... Oh, and no cutting off or leaving out the strings (or laser/tractor beams or with watever it is attached).

Think of Huey Long (or the ficitional Willie Stark), "Diamond" Joe Quimby from The Simpsons, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane, Martin Sheen as Jed Bartlet, or maybe even the belicose Boss Hogg.

What are his secrets?
What promises did he make and break to get where he is today?
Is he a Democrat or a Republican?
Is he President, governor, senator, mayor?
Is this current politics, or some time in the past?
Is this somewhere in the US, England...or some island country off the coast?
Is he loved or hated? Or both?
Is it necessarily a man, or is this a Margaret Thatcher, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Hillary Clinton, or Condoleeza Rice?

From Celtic lore: Gwyn ap Nudd a wild huntsman who rides a demon horse and hunts in waste places at night with a pack of white bodied and red eared dogs of hell. Cheering on his hell hounds in a fearful chase, he hunts souls.

Ooh...

Originally Posted by Wiggers

Gwyn ap Nudd the wild huntsman,

From Celtic lore: Gwyn ap Nudd a wild huntsman who rides a demon horse and hunts in waste places at night with a pack of white bodied and red eared dogs of hell. Cheering on his hell hounds in a fearful chase, he hunts souls.

White with red ears are the faerie colours, not hell.

But folklore faeries, i.e. the tall, beautiful, but dangerous ones who kill cattle and steal babies, a bit more like a demonic-Tolkien-elf race.

Greek mythology

Classic favourites, artist's choice on whether to go with the Greek-look or something more original (e.g. futuristic Hercules). Seeing these heroes facing cyborg or alien monsters would be awesome, in my opinion.

Basically a list of Greek heroes and some more significant monster-girls:

Hercules:

He fought MAN-EATING HORSES, a big lion, bull and boar (piggies can be dangerous), poisonous birds, the hydra, got the belt of an Amazon queen, HE CAUGHT CERBERUS!

He also swilled out a stable, caught a deer and stole some cattle.

Oh, and these because he killed his family in a crazy rage, so those who like insanity-based pics have a chance to dig into this one.

Right, he was also included in a lot of other things, e.g. he was one of Jason's Argonauts, but his trials are the more unique parts of his mythology.

Jason:

Lead the Argonauts! Came up against various beasties and was under close supervision (not always helpful) from the gods!

Most famous for that trip for the Golden Fleece, which included betrayal, love, betrayal of love, a golden sheep's skin and its guardian reptile.

Perseus:

Most famous for getting Pegasus and killing Medusa. Saved his girl from the KRAKEN.

Oedipus:

Guy who married his mum after killing his dad (by mistake, he didn't know they were his parents, though that's why you shouldn't just kill strangers I guess). Went pretty emo after that, but before this grief (though after killing his dad en route) he defeated the Sphinx of Thebes.

Theseus:

...And the minotaur. The rest of his adventures were rather more political in nature I think (including the mythological races and gods of the time).

Odysseus:

Holy crap he did a lot! Relevant is that he faced the sirens (who resemble beautiful women with the lower torso of fish or birds who lure sailors into dangerous waters with their singing where upon the men die).

And he faced Scylla (mentioned below, but the Odyssey version seems to be bigger and have much longer necks, plus a real taste for human flesh).

Also faced the cyclops (awesome story) and all this following the Trojan War!

...Monster time!

Medusa:

Snake-haired ugly from a once-proud beauty who got in trouble with the gods, with the gaze to turn creatures to stone; Perseus fought this one.

Arachne:

Another vain girl who got on the nerves of the gods (and beat a goddess at weaving), also paid for it with her form. Mythology implies a full-spider transformation but I know we like Drider-beasties.

Sphinx of Thebes:

Body of a lion, head of a woman. And often chest of a woman too. Wings common in the Greek version.

Vicious girl with a love for lateral-thinking puzzles, kills those who gets her riddle wrong.

Defeated by Oedipus (but we all know the guy had parent-issues).

Scylla:

Victim of a woman's envy, this young girl was transformed into a beast not just dog from the waist down but SEVERAL (six) dogs foreparts making up her lower torso!